INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana forward Ron Artest challenged Bruce Bowen to a game of one-on-one for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award Tuesday, one day after Spurs coach Gregg Popovich criticized Artest and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle.

"Tell his coach, 'Let's play one-on-one for the award,'" Artest said after practice. "I'll give it to him if he can beat me."

Popovich appeared Monday on a San Antonio radio station and said Bowen was more deserving of the award, which Artest won by a wide margin. Bowen finished fourth in the voting.

"Bruce guards the best player on the other team almost every single night," Popovich said. "Artest doesn't do that. Artest just looks the part. He looks like a big, tough guy. He whacks and gets knocked out of the game once in a while."

Popovich also criticized Carlisle for openly campaigning for his player. Carlisle called voters to lobby for his player and also had two assistants break down film of Artest to come up with statistics to back his campaign.

"We'll never do that," Popovich said of the campaign. "It's not our style. It makes no sense. And we'll certainly not throw out stats that are totally unsubstantiated. There's no way to substantiate them. It's like grabbing four guys off the street and putting them in a film room and saying to come up with some stats on this guy."

The comments were posted on the team's Web site and didn't take long to find their way to Indiana, where the Pacers are awaiting the outcome of the Miami-New Orleans series after their four-game sweep of the Boston Celtics in the first round.

Artest said he was angered that Popovich made the comments to the media rather than approaching him personally.

"It's not hard to get in touch with me," Artest said. "All you have to do is call the Pacers office and ask for my phone number. You can speak to me instead of going to the papers. He's taken a lot of positives away from it."

Andrei Kirilenko got robbed on the All-Defensive team. Top five in both steals(5) and blocks(3). I believe he's one of few players to achieve that feat in the history of the keeping of those stats.

(Not Bob Kohm)

In the context of baseball, the use of drugs hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, the use of alcohol hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, womanizing hurts whom? Maybe the wife of the player? In the context of baseball, felonies are crimes against society, not against baseball. In the context of baseball, gambling is the only crime against baseball.

Gambling, in the context of baseball, is a capital offense and Rose has richly earned-- hell, he agreed to-- his death sentence. Let him hang.

Bob Kohm, co-owner of Rotojunkies.com (rotojunkies.com) , and a large market kind of guy.

If by some random fluke the LakeShow doesn't make the finals, I'd also watch a Spurs-Pacers series. Artest is a phenomenal defender worthy of the accolade he received. It seems to me that Popovich decided to shit on his award based solely on his reputation around the league. And Pop's comments don't even make sense when one analyzes them.

"We'll never do that," Popovich said of the campaign. "It's not our style. It makes no sense. And we'll certainly not throw out stats that are totally unsubstantiated. There's no way to substantiate them. It's like grabbing four guys off the street and putting them in a film room and saying to come up with some stats on this guy."

No, it's not the Spurs style to campaign for a guy to win an award. It's also not their style to create a highlight film of a certain player to increase his chances of winning said award. But it clearly is their style to whine about the outcome of voting when their player doesn't win said award. Jackass.

All these guys are missing the big point....that Ben Wallace, DEFENSIVE PRESENCE, affects the game more than any other player and he should win DPOY every year.

But I agree with Pops on this one. And I will say that Bowen is the key to them beating the Lakers for the past several years in the playoffs. He's the one guy who's able to really take Kobe out of the game.

The Amazing Salami's Not-So-Random W of the Arbitrary Segment of Time

CRZCRZ says:Also, since the time change your sig has grown by 166% - please work on that.

I still think Ben is the best defensive player also. I don't know who is better between Artest and Bowen, but I can't crticize Carlilse for helping his player's chances. Shows to me that wants good things for his organization and his players.

I would also watch a Pacers-Spurs finals but put me down on the Spurs side for that one.

Originally posted by The Amazing SalamiAnd I will say that Bowen is the key to them beating the Lakers for the past several years in the playoffs. He's the one guy who's able to really take Kobe out of the game.

... I always hear this crap. It's been said so many times that, I suppose, people have just learned to take it as gospel. But it isn't true.

... Sorry, TAS -- don't mean to call you out in particular, but this sort of misinformation regarding the Bowen-Bryant match-up has been going on for a while, and it DOES bug. Bowen's a good, physical defender, but he gets lit up by Kobe like everyone else does.

Originally posted by The Amazing SalamiAnd I will say that Bowen is the key to them beating the Lakers for the past several years in the playoffs. He's the one guy who's able to really take Kobe out of the game.

... I always hear this crap. It's been said so many times that, I suppose, people have just learned to take it as gospel. But it isn't true.

... Sorry, TAS -- don't mean to call you out in particular, but this sort of misinformation regarding the Bowen-Bryant match-up has been going on for a while, and it DOES bug. Bowen's a good, physical defender, but he gets lit up by Kobe like everyone else does.

And, yes, I think Ben Wallace should have won the DPOY award as well.

JT, the numbers obviously bear out your side of the argument, but what I'd have to say TAS was getting at was that it seemed that last year Bryant seemed to get most of his points late, when the Spurs had gotten a little breathing room. Even more than that, Bowen seemed to rattle Kobe with some of the big steals that he made and the (in Kobe's opinion) non-calls that happened during the series. Kobe had to work hard for everything he got off of Bowen, and on the few times that Bowen took a breather and Ginobili guarded Bryant, you could just see Kobe's eyes light up.